Letting your reef chemistry go completely unsupervised is not recommended. But in the interest of keeping reefs in a manner that is doable for everyone, I would like to share this super easy test. Tropic Marin KH test is very easy and quick to use. You simply add 5 ml of tank water to the glass cuvette, then you add drops of the reagent, until the liquid turns pink. The number of drops you need tells you the alkalinity. I try to keep my alkalinity between 7 and 8, so when I check it, the 8th drop should turn the liquid pink.
The test is finished when any new drops aren't changing the color. It's that simple. Rinse the cuvette, and it's ready for use next time.
The TM tank's alkalinity is checked 1-3 times per week. The pictures show the test before, during and when finished.
Happy testing! -Samuel Christensen
